We as the modern Church tend to read the book of Acts as if it is a book of heroes, a list of unattainable feats. Reading of the miraculous stories of the early church makes us question if we really even believe that the same power that conquered the grave of Jesus is truly alive in us today. To this effect, James wrote that the great prophet Elijah was a human just like all of us. For those James was writing to and for us today, the danger of heralding those of the early church as heroes is that we think that what they did is unattainable for us, and thus we give ourselves permission not to dedicate ourselves to what the earliest church folks dedicated themselves to. And when we create a ceiling for what we think we can do, we’re actually creating a ceiling for what we believe God can do.
Acts 2:42-45 tells us exactly what the disciples dedicated themselves to, and how that led to their extraordinary outcomes. The answer is astoundingly simple: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers,” (Acts 2:42). The truth about the early church is that the people they were was never about who they were. It was always about who Jesus was, the process that He gifted them and the Spirit working through them. As a result of their steadfast and single-minded fidelity to this process, awe and wonder came upon every soul, and resulted in everyone selflessly putting their belongings on the line for the betterment of each other. Further, the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (v.43-45). There is a tendency to look at the results the church had in the book of Acts and think “I could never do that. I could never be that faithful.” And you’d be right, insofar as it depended on you. But God works by His Spirit through the processes he creates for his Church. What part of the process outlined for the Church in the book of Acts is the most difficult for you?